Will Vodafone India and Idea Cellular merge soon?

Vodafone and Idea may merge soon.

2017 is supposedly going to be a big year for the telecom sector. Predictions are such that the telecom giants are all prepping up to fight Reliance Jio and its unlimited and attractive tariff offers. Keeping that in mind, the latest reports are such that the two telecom giants, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular might merge together.

Soon after Reliance Jio hit the Indian telecom sector, it created a buzz throughout the space, giving sleepless nights to the existing telecom giants. In the wake to pull down Jio, Airtel, Vodafone, RComm, Idea, and rest have lately announced attracting tariff plans with the aim to offer more services in lesser cost.

Not only that, a few telecom companies are now planning to merge to combat Reliance Jio. Likewise, the recent reports suggest that Vodafone and Idea might merge very soon, however, there's no official announcement on the same as of now. Predictions are such that the merger would create India's largest telecom company ever, giving a tough fight to the new entrant - Reliance Jio.

As per media reports, Global brokerage house CLSA believes that Vodafone India and Idea Cellular jointly would change the industry order and the combined entity would have 43 % revenue share in the market by FY19CL, against 33 per cent of Bharti AirtelBSE 4.54% and 13% for Reliance Jio. So, it will be really interesting to witness how both tech giants would lead the telecom sector in the days to come.

The Economic Times report shows that CLSA further feels that, "the merger will help Vodafone India improve its position in the mass market, while Idea Cellular would gain from Vodafone's strength in the metro circles. Finally, the merger would create a new leader in the mobile/data industry, challenging both Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio and further intensify the competition."